Kickstart the (Online) Encyclopedia of Surfing

People dig the Encyclopedia of Surfing. I’ve got a stack of rave reviews here to prove it. Joel Patterson, former SURFER editor, had “THE BIBLE” printed in thick black Sharpie across the cover of his copy. Warmed my heart to see that. But here’s the thing. How many of you wonderful people out there actually own a copy of the Encyclopedia?

I’ll tell you how many. 24,989. Just got a royalty statement yesterday. This big bastard of a reference book is respected, cited, maybe even loved. But it never did light up the best-seller lists. Don’t get me wrong. 25K isn’t bad for a surf book. Especially one with a LOT of text, and very few photos. Still, I’ve always had this fantasy that EOS would be on surfers’ desks and bookshelves everywhere, sort of like a REAL Bible. (Or Koran, or Torah, or whatever. Not making a religious point here, just saying.)

I’m putting the Encyclopedia of Surfing online in part to make that happen. Google search. Click. There it is, the Encyclopedia, free to one and all.

I’ve been working on the digital version of EOS for 18 months now, with help from Justin Housman. This Kickstarter campaign is sort of a coming out party. We’re going public. Lots more to see and read about on the actual Kickstarter page. (And yes, that’s my shaky camera work on the promo vid. Two weeks of my life gone, making that thing. I’m calling bullshit on iMovie being an easy program. But again, I digress.)

Anyway, Inertia fans, thanks for reading. Kick a few bucks my way, if you can. Or help get the word out on your Facebook site. Or hell, just log on once the thing is up and running, hopefully in mid-2012 – that would be fine.